Thursday, April 07, 2016

Back in 2009 I wrote this blog post about a school visit I did during hispanic Heritage Month. This was seven years ago. SEVEN!!! I was a beginner writer and my kids were super young. I wrote during nap times and at night. I didn't really know what I wanted to write. My stories were all retellings of my favorite Celtic legends, mashing together Marion Simmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon with my favorite fairy tales. When I went to that dual immersion school and saw so many happy faces ready to see a Hispanic author, I realized I didn't know of any books that portrayed children who looked and sounded and lived like those little ones--like my own children. I have an agent now (hi, Linda!!!) and I'm doing my MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, always with the intent of becoming a better writer. Hopefully I won't have to way seven more years to see a book of mine on a shelf.

But that school visit was a turning point in my life. Now, in the midst of the whole diversity revolution, everyone talks about the problem of the lack of representation in media, especially children's books. I'm a huge supporter of the We Need Diverse Books organization. They've been a great support to me too. Remember this?
In an effort to do my part in this revolution for more diversity, I wrote a short essay giving my opinion of why we need diverse books. Why do YOU think we need diversity in books?

Why do we need diverse books?

By Yamile Saied Méndez

“Literature is the expression of
society”, said Charles Nodier, a French author and librarian who, according to
Wikipedia, introduced young Romanticists to gothic literature and vampire
tales. If books were photos in our social-medialized society, would they really
show the nature of our world and society? Would everyone be able to see
themselves on the pages of a book?

One of the first things people do
when they see a photo is look for themselves or people they might know. The
same is true about books. When children read a book, they look for aspects of
their lives and their situations. They read books with curiosity to learn about
other people too.

The first book that I read by myself
was Heidi, by Johanna Spyri. I lost
my favorite grandfather at the age of five, and I saw my relationship with my
Abuelo in that book. As a child, I didn’t have a pet goat, lived in the
mountains, or ever slept in a bed of hay. Heck! I’d never seen snow in my life!
I didn’t have anything else in common with the “girl from the Alps” but for the
sorrow of missing a beloved grandfather. Reading about Heidi’s pain when she
was separated from her grandfather helped me deal with my own grieving at
having lost mine to death.

The next books that marked me as a
person were the works of Brazilian luminaire Monteiro Lobato. Through his
stories about cousins Little Nose and Pedrinho, I learned to love the Brazilian
people, their traditions, their history. In spite of the Argentine-Brazilian
eternal rivalry in the soccer field, I saw my Brazilian neighbors through the
window of books and learned to love them. Eventually, I earned a degree in
Latin American studies, with an emphasis in Portuguese language and literature.
All because of a series of stories about a grandmother and her grandchildren in
a small Brazilian farm.

In books, my greatest friends and
companions throughout my life and especially my childhood were mirrors to
myself and windows to the world.

Books empower.

They empowered me to pursue my
dreams and fight for them. A child who doesn’t see herself in books is lacking
the tools to face life, to make sense of the world around her, to know what she
could be capable of. A child who doesn’t see a different reality from his lacks
the tools to learn how to empathize with those living under different
circumstances. He lacks the tools to make sense of aspects of the world he
isn’t a part of.

As a child, seeing aspect of myself
in a book I was empowered. When I read about a character of my ethnic or
cultural background, I got the message that my story mattered enough for
someone to write about it. I learned I wasn’t alone in my sorrow. I learned
that I mattered.

My children are growing up between
cultures. Like I did as a child, they yearn to be heard, seen, recognized,
empowered by a book. Words give life and voice. And I want my children—and all
children--to have a voice, to make sense of life, and to feel empowered. That’s
why we need diverse books.

About Me

Repped by Linda Camacho, at the Prospect Agency. I'm a mother of five wise souls, married to my best friend Jeff. I write and read and listen to music. And I drive my children to their many social obligations that are a lot more than mine.
Contact me at yamile.s.mendez@gmail.com